WrestleView’s own David Stephens sent this in:
Paul London recently sat down and held a Q&A on his Official Site. Readers sent in the questions and the best were answered by London. I personally submitted this question:
Question: When and why did you decide to utilize the Shooting Star Press as your finisher? Was it difficult to master?
Answer: Master? lolol ‘thank you’. Master is a lofty word but I’ll take it haha.. To be completely honest, the SSP is way easier for me to pull off than the 450 was…NOT that it was that hard either, just different rotations completely. Jushin Liger was and is still to this min a huge influence on my style and so seeing this Japanese super hero flip the way he did totally caught my attention and respect. Seeing Kidman perform it in WcW gave me the belief that white guys could do it too, so seeing as I spent 88% of my 12-16 yr old phase on a trampoline it was only natural that I would try to learn the mechanics of both the SSP and the 450. As far as trying the SSP, I knew that I could nail it so during my next show…lets see, this was probably 2000, I decided to just try it. It was in a barn in front of maybe 19 people (it was sold out lol) and I actually overshot the guy (Bobby 2 Bad) and still kinda nailed him. It wasn’t until I went to train with Dory Funk Jr privately that he really helped me get the mechanics down and turn it into what it is today. He had me perform the SSP off the top onto a mattress about 15-20 times over and over and over hahaha nothing like some good repetition!
The rest of the Q&A is here:
Question: How has lucha libre influenced your style as a wrestler? What attracts you about lucha libre?’
Answer: I can honestly say that lucha was the first style of pro wrestling I was ever exposed to. My family on my Mother’s side all live in Mexico and so when I would visit as a youngster I would come across it often. The grandeur of the masks, the spectacle and especially the speed and acrobatics easily snatched my attention. While I can’t say that my personal style is heavily influenced from a move set POV, I CAN honestly say that the speed, acrobatics and showy-ness all play a part in what I like to do in the ring. You never know when you might need to use a patented lucha ‘bump’ or lucha ‘bypass’ to elude and bait your opponent right to where you need em!
Question: What match do you consider your best?
Answer: As far as matches I’m proud of…working with AJ Styles-ROH night of the grudges, Chris Sabin at TNA in 03′, The ladder match in WWE at Armageddon, both of my singles matches with Brian (1st where we’re both wearing ‘man’ties and the 2nd in the beat the clock match), our title match against MNM was fun and stands out, and lastly a match I had with Jeff Hardy in Mexico City (that was a last second decision since Brian got hurt the night before) and we ended up stealing the whole tour with that match on the last night of a hot tour! Fun times. As far as my best??? Cant say I know of one…I believe my best work is ahead of me.
Question: Hey Paul, I was wondering why absolutely NOTHING happened after Kendrick walked out on you in the match with Umaga? Is WWE really so unorganized that they decide on doing something only to change their minds after setting the wheels in motion?
Answer: Jumping ship on seeds that get planted in the audience’s mind seemed to be the ONLY consistent writing technique used by “creative” hahaha love using that word when referring to the ‘entertainers’ haha So yeah, could’ve been good stuff, good opportunity for some character development…BUT NO! My ‘character’ development was basically a guy who wants NOTHING to do with OPEN challenges (WM20) and is SOOOOOOO BABYFACE that he would try to understand that his partner was just being ‘smart’ and trying to avoid further injury since 1 partner being broken is better than BOTH partners being broken…have I already used the word ‘creative’?
Question: If you were casted in the Wrestler, what would your character be?
Answer: I most likely would be the younger guy who sees Randy ‘The Ram’ in the corner of the locker room all beat up and used, and decides “I’m not going to let myself turn into that!” What a sad reality, but portrayed beautifully and most effectively. Few get a 2nd chance… even less get 3rd and 4th chances. I only wrestle because I want to and I can. The second I feel that I HAVE to wrestle…I probably won’t.
Question: Have you ever thought about wearing tassle boots again to the ring?
Answer: My Mom hated the tassles lol. I on the flip-side, really dug em’ Mostly influenced by Kerry Von Erich and Shane Douglas, they did bring a lot of Ultimate Warrior comments my way (which I embraced b/c what a zany and wild character he was). I just really like the look and constant motion enhanced by tassles. Who knows, you may just see me bringing back the Native American tassled saude jacket look Steven Seagal tried to popularize when he was…On Deadly Ground!
Question: Who did your new orange ring gear the drawings are really cool. Are you going to put a t shirt out? Lastly thank you for wrestling again.
Answer: I have a special artist friend of mine who puts together my outfits. We tend to share very similar tastes and influences so being…’CREATIVE’ comes really easily for us but mostly I just wake up from a dream or out of meditation and try and put what was spoken to me by the forces all around us into words or pictures. My special E.T. friend then translates my mumbling gibberish into art. The material and work is designed to make the audience think…something to wet the brain if you will.
Credit: www.paul-london.net